Woodridge Home Project Gets Planning Panel’s OK

The 273-home Woodridge project planned for just north of the city, which has been soundly criticized by slow-growth advocates, cleared a major hurdle after planning commissioners voted early Tuesday to recommend the City Council annex the land and rezone it for residential development.

The commission’s 3-2 vote puts the proposed development a crucial step closer to realization.

Council members will decide whether to lay claim to the 743-acres of unincorporated rolling hills between Lang Ranch in Thousand Oaks and Wood Ranch in Simi Valley and authorize it to be subdivided for development. County officials have said the county will cede the land if requested.

Representatives of Woodridge Associates, the project’s developer, cheered the commission’s decision. But it disappointed critics who have assailed the proposed luxury home community as being, at the very least, misguided.

Opponents argue that the Woodridge project would take a sizable slice out of the county’s dwindling open-space preserves, establish a residential corridor linking the city to Simi Valley and place additional stress on an already overtaxed city infrastructure.

“This is not something that Thousand Oaks needs right now,” said Dan del Campo, a former City Council candidate. “It’s bad for our community and it’s bad for the county.”

As planned, the Woodridge project would rest on a 743-acre arc of county land east of Erbes Road. The nearly 300 homes would be built on roomy 11,000-square-foot lots on 85 acres in the western section of the property. Another 33 acres would be set aside as a buffer between the subdivision and surrounding brush and for water-retention basins.

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The rest of the land--625 acres--would be donated by developer Michael Rosenfeld to the city to be set aside as permanent open space.

Del Campo and others who lobbied the commission against the project fear the development would eliminate the greenbelt buffer that separates the city from Simi Valley and place an excessive burden on area schools, roads and utilities.

After the meeting, City Councilwoman Linda Parks said she doubted whether the Woodridge project has enough safeguards to protect the city’s greenbelt.

“I’m not saying I’m for or against this project,” Parks said. “But we need to encourage buffers and I’m not sure this project goes far enough to protect them.”

The Planning Department staff, which recommended the commission approve the development, said such fears are unfounded, however, and that project-related impacts would be minimal.

According to studies conducted by the city in May, area roads such as Sunset Hills Boulevard, which would extend into the development, are already large enough to accommodate increased traffic, and effects on the congested Moorpark Freeway would be slight.

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And planners said that no roads leading into the development would extend into Simi Valley, thus keeping the subdivision and Thousand Oaks separate from that city.

Additionally, Rosenfeld, Woodridge’s general partner, has agreed to pay Conejo Valley Unified School District as much as $2 million to offset increased enrollment in area schools.

“We’ve done quite a bit to make sure that this is a compatible development for not only the city, but also the people of Thousand Oaks,” Rosenfeld said.

Although the land is zoned by the county as open space, it does lie within the city’s sphere of influence--a ring of land earmarked by the city to locate overflow development. According to city officials, Thousand Oaks is 94% built-out.

According to the city’s General Plan, the Woodridge property could contain as many as 637 homes. Rosenfeld, who has scaled back the number of proposed homes on the site several times, plans to use only 12% of the property, leaving the rest as open space with deed guarantees that it would remain so.

Despite Woodridge Associates’ plans to reduce the environmental impact of its subdivision, two commissioners withheld their support, citing the same concerns as residents.

“We haven’t reached the point where we don’t have any more options,” said Commissioner Marilyn Carpenter. “When I look at that great swath of greenbelt that we’ve fought so hard to protect, I find it hard to support this kind of development. It should be kept as an open-space buffer.”

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Although commissioners Forrest Frields, Ronald Polanski and Chairman John Powers complimented Rosenfeld for the development and the care he has taken to meet city-mandated criteria, Commissioner Dave Anderson said he wasn’t convinced the area is ready for this kind of project.

“The bottom line for me is that despite how well it’s planned, it’s simply not the right time and it’s not the right place,” he said. “I’m concerned with the cumulative impacts of this project and I don’t think those have been properly addressed.”

The City Council will take up the issue of whether to annex and subdivide the land at its Sept. 9 meeting. If approved, construction could begin as early as next year.